"App Economy" Healthier Than U.S. Economy

The Facebook "app economy" has added at least 182,000 new jobs and contributed more than $12.19 billion in wages and benefits to the U.S. economy this year. That's according to new research from University of Maryland, which using more aggressive estimates, suggests that Facebook's app economy created a total of 235,644 jobs, adding a value of $15.71 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011. The study, as TechCrunch notes, evaluated jobs created in the app industry -- direct employment -- jobs created in other sectors of the economy from Facebook's ecosystem -- indirect employment -- and the economic value of those jobs, including salary and benefits.

"As we've written in the past, 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, and Facebook users install 20 million apps every day," TechCrunch writes. "Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external Web sites. Especially with the viral growth of gaming apps, as well as the use of the 'Like' button used by brands, more and more developers are building off the Facebook platform to tap into the network's 700 million-plus userbase."